


Emolument - Tony Leaves

by cutsycat



Series: Dictionary.Com Word of the Day Drabbles [1413]
Category: NCIS
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-05
Updated: 2019-11-05
Packaged: 2021-01-23 09:24:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 856
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21317884
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cutsycat/pseuds/cutsycat
Summary: After receiving his "raise" *cough* cost of living increase *cough*, Tony realizes that he's just not paid enough for the crap he has to put up with at NCIS.
Series: Dictionary.Com Word of the Day Drabbles [1413]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/444514
Comments: 12
Kudos: 52
Collections: Cutsycat's Five Prompts Challenge





	Emolument - Tony Leaves

**Author's Note:**

> Another dictionary.com word of the day drabble. This time from 03/14/2003 for the word [emolument](http://www.dictionary.com/wordoftheday/2003/03/14/emolument).
> 
> emolument[ ih-mol-yuh-muh nt ]  
noun  
profit, salary, or fees from office or employment; compensation for services:  
Tips are an emolument in addition to wages.
> 
> This is for Prompt #1 of the September 2019 Five Prompts Challenge located [here](https://ncis-discuss.livejournal.com/207984.html).

Tony stared at the latest emolument he’d been granted during his annual review. He appreciated the raise, but it was basically a cost of living increase and nothing else. He had to admit that his dissatisfaction had grown over the years and this paltry increase did nothing to assuage his discontent.

He’d half-heartedly considered finding another job for the last 3 years, but hadn’t been willing to actually follow through. Now as he watched the team laughing around him, he couldn’t help feeling completely separate from them. A part, but not of, maybe? 

He stared at his computer screen, but didn’t see it as thoughts whirled through his mind. One part of his brain was busy trying to figure out the logistics of looking for another job with the crazy schedule Gibbs insisted on while the other flitted from topic to topic with no correlation that Tony could figure out.

The team was laughing at him again. They had been poking fun at him frequently and while he could take as good as he gave, it had developed a malevolent edge to it recently. No one was standing up for him and pointing out that what they were saying wasn’t actually true.

Tony couldn’t help feeling hurt that they all seemed to have such a dismal opinion of him. If it only happened once in a while, it wouldn’t be a big deal, but it was pretty much every day now. He hated it.

It used to be that he looked forward to coming to work everyday. Not only because he knew he was doing good and helping the victims’ families find closure, but because he actually enjoyed the work and the people he worked with. That had changed.

It had happened so gradually that he hadn’t noticed it. It wasn’t until he’d dreaded going to work every day for almost two years that he realized he no longer enjoyed his job. That’s when he had first started considering finding another job, but he’d thought the team was his family and he hadn’t wanted to leave them.

He told himself that it would get better, that everyone was having a rough time after the Rivkin disaster and that everything would go back to normal. It had been almost two years since he’d first started telling himself things would get better and he couldn’t keep lying to himself anymore. It was obvious now that it would never get better.

He’d considered reaching out to Fornell, but he knew the first thing Fornell would do was reach out to Gibbs and he really didn’t want to tell Gibbs he was thinking about leaving until he had somewhere else to go. Honestly, either way Gibbs reacted would be bad. If he told Tony that it was about time and he wasn’t needed or hadn’t been useful for the last couple of years, it would pierce Tony’s shields and leave his heart in shreds. If on the other hand, he protested and begged Tony to stay that would be beyond embarrassing, especially given that Gibbs was the one person who could have put his foot down and changed what was happening.

Heck, Gibbs was the one who could go to bat and demand a bigger raise for Tony, but he hadn’t. That ought to say something right there. With a sigh, Tony tuned back into the case they were currently working on, but his concentration didn't stay there.

The cost of living increase felt like a shot to his heart and he couldn’t help feeling like he wasn’t appreciated anymore. He really didn’t think there was any point in staying, but as there were still at least four hours left in the day he couldn’t do anything about it. He tried to marshal his thoughts back into order, so that he could focus on the case, but he found it was a struggle to do so.

Having basically made the decision to move on, Tony found that he just really did not care about the case as much as he should. He tried to focus on it, not wanting the victim’s family to suffer simply because he was moving on. However, he frequently found his thoughts drifting back to the deep quagmire that was his decision to find another job, instead of concentrating on the case.

He couldn’t deny that he felt happier than he had in a long time now that he’d decided to leave. He had no idea what awaited him in the job market, but one thing he did know was that there was an end in sight to the abuse he’d been dealing with. He felt even better when they finally caught the petty officer’s killer and got his confession. 

A couple months later, Tony smiled as he handed in his resignation. Gibbs took it better than he expected and actually told him that he’d be missed. Tony didn’t regret his decision in the slightest and looked forward to his new job. He’d decided to start his own jury consulting service and focus on making sure the innocent went free and the guilty were found guilty.

**Author's Note:**

> The dictionary.com series has 1 story already written for it after this one, so I will be posting at least 1 more story before I stop posting again. I'm hoping to get more stories written before then, so that I don't stop posting for a while. Wish me luck! 
> 
> It's 2019 now and I have closed my 2018 Prompt collection, but fear not my 2019 Prompt Collection is now open [here](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/cutsycat_NCIS_Prompts_2019/profile). Just click the sign up link. ;) It will remain open until the beginning of 2020. I'm hoping to complete all the 2019 prompts by the end of 2020. Do not fear I have not forgotten about the 2018 prompts and will continue working through them. It's just easier for me to not get overwhelmed if I keep the prompts separated by the year they were given to me.
> 
> If you are not an ao3 member, you can prompt me [here](http://cutsycat.livejournal.com/50701.html). Please follow the same rules as are listed in the above link. However, because this is a handmade prompt form(that thinks it's a poll), it is considerably more limited than what ao3 provides, so please use the ao3 form if you're an ao3 member. Please note the name option is for a name that I can say this is for so that you know it's for you. Since this is for non ao3 members it won't be true gifts, but you will be mentioned in the notes. Please note if you have already voted in the poll and would like to request more stories you can just add a comment to the poll. Please include the name along with the prompt, so that I can appropriately gift the prompt to you.
> 
> For any authors that want to chat and/or are looking for a place where they can toss plot ideas around and get input from people, you can come join my discord server that is specifically geared towards writing/encouraging people to write and authors. The invite link is [here](https://discord.gg/HFvwpCq). If you're not an author, but want to chat with me about writing/stories or anything else you are welcome to join. I reserve the right to boot you from my server if all you do is pester me about updates, however. *grin* Really anyone who wants to talk about writing and/or plot ideas for various stories is welcome to join. 
> 
> Also, Drakonyashka has translated a couple of my works into Russian. [Tutelage](http://archiveofourown.org/works/12378780) and [Imbue](http://archiveofourown.org/works/12378840). Go support them. 


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